


tore the curtains down

by notaboutit



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Fluff, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, i swear peter and tony is more mentor and kid thing okay, very much no starker in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 04:38:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12005187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notaboutit/pseuds/notaboutit
Summary: Tony Stark is having a comfortable day in his lab. Okay, maybe a comfortable couple of days in his lab completely alone and nonstop working. Enter Peter Parker, stage left.





	tore the curtains down

Growing up, Tony Stark had gotten used to sitting alone in his lab and working on things nonstop for quite literally days on end undisturbed. After the death of his parents, it had seemed that no one knew quite how to handle it, or more importantly, how to handle him. So, Tony got into the habit of impulsively working for days on end with his lab, starting the moment inspiration struck, ending the moment the project had been finished, then perfected. Multiple times, of course, no Stark does anything halfway. Tony was currently working on upgrades for his suit, he was going through with one of the many ideas he had considered, but had never actually gone through with or perfected until… well, until he was left stranded in Siberia and had a lot of extra time to think about the upgrades that he could have had, but didn’t. 

After the initial pain and rage at being abandoned in fucking Siberia had (mostly) subsided, his mind had promptly raced to equipment improvement, ways to prevent this from happening again. Of course before he got any work on the suit done at all, he had to deal with legalities and a huge amount of boring shit before he was able to escape to his lab, and even then he was expected to do press to clean up his own reputation and give a statement on his former teammates turned war criminals. And, of course, the whole Vulture incident, the cleanup after that, quite frankly it was a miracle of godlike proportions that he had a few days away at all. Okay, maybe it wasn’t a god, but it was Pepper Potts, which is pretty damn close in his, and most others opinion. 

So now, here he was, in the flickering lights of his lab, working on his current progress. It was his second or third day in his lab undisturbed, judging by the amount of progress he had made and the amount of times F.R.I.D.A.Y. had alerted him that people were looking for him, or even worse, attempting to call him. He was pretty sure he was only about halfway done with the new and improved suit, and after that he still had finishing touches and digitalizing the blueprints and field testing and-

“Hey uh, Mr. Stark? Mr. Stark? Are you in there?”

No fucking way. No fucking way would F.R.I.D.A.Y. let this kid into his lab while he was working on something that could potentially be very extremely dangerous, life threatening, even. No way. He could hear the kid puttering around by the door, but thankfully his windows were blinded so the kid definitely couldn’t tell that he was in his lab, because he didn’t have the door codes, and even if he did F.R.I.D.A.Y. would, under no circumstances tell Peter that Tony was in there, or just let him stroll into-

“Door code activated.” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s mechanical voice informed him, in a way that was almost smug for an AI, much to his annoyance, “Peter Parker is visiting because of suit difficulties boss, I’m sending him in.” And in strolled Peter Parker. Son of a bitch.

“Hey Mr. Stark, Happy said that I had to talk to you about any problems with my suit because he was too busy, but uh I know that you might be too busy so if you are just tell me and I can come back like, tomorrow or something. Really, whatever is more convenient for you, Mr. Stark! I-”

The kid was walking into his lab, seemingly carefree, fiddling with his hoodie strings and jostling his backpack from side to side, babbling about how his suit wasn’t working correctly when he tried to activate a certain webbing function. Which okay yeah, Tony was happy to see the kid and happy that the kid knew well enough to come to him when his suit was damaged (nearly half of the previous Avengers had barely known to do that, by the way) but he could probably live without the company right now. He was about to clear his throat and say that yes, he was actually a little busy currently, so maybe in a couple days, possibly a week? Anyone’s guess, really. But true to habit, the kid beat him to talking once more. 

“Oh I am so sorry Mr. Stark,” Peter said, stopping in front of him a little ways from the table, “I just noticed you’re working on something so uh do you want me to just leave my suit here or do you want me to take it with me and just keep you posted or-”

Tony was already starting to feel a slight headache coming on. It occurred to him suddenly that he hadn’t actually had a human being in his lab, talking to him, since he started, and he should probably be pausing for at least some sleep soon. He also found himself suddenly remembering how it had been to work in a lab with Bruce, how they might not have talked and interacted nonstop but how it had felt so much more comforting that working in the hollow, dark, emptiness of his lab with just him and the suits in it.

“You know what kid?” Tony said, pushing himself away from the desk and turning to face the younger hero, “How about we work on it together? That way if you have the same problem another time, you won’t necessarily have to bring it in, and to me? How’s that sound?” Tony figures it must sound pretty damn good based off of the muffled sound of excitement that Peter makes. Turning back to his desk, and pushing a few papers and parts aside, he gestured to Peter to bring it over. And in an instant it was out of Peter’s backpack lying on the table, and they had started trying to find the source of the problem.

A couple of hours later, the problem was resolved. It had been a small problem with the wiring that delayed the action of his web shooters by one or two seconds. Silently, Tony thanked whoever was listening in that Peter hadn’t been in a position that day where the delay was severely life threatening, and that Tony hadn’t brushed off the problem as being minor. He shudders to think of what would have happened if he had turned Peter away and allowed him to keep fighting crime in a malfunctioning suit. Of course, they weren’t necessarily finished, he still had to have Peter test the suit to see if it was fixed, and then have him fly around and test his webs for a little while to be sure that it was fixed permanently, but he figured he could write this particular case down as an pre-success. 

“Hey Mr. Stark,” Tony heard Peter say as he came back into the lab, tossing his backpack below one of the tables, “so far so good, but do you want me to go and test it outside for a little while? Just to be sure it’s fixed properly?”

Tony couldn’t contain his smile as he turned to look at Peter, he was a smart kid, no doubt about it. But, as he took in Peter not bouncing on his feet slightly out of excitement, but rather slouching slightly, his head tilted towards the ground slightly, almost like he was disappointed, his smile dropped momentarily. Tony realized abruptly that he wasn’t ready to go back to his solo project in the lab just yet, and apparently neither was Peter, if his expression and body language was anything to go by. They had both had a fairly good time working together, thinking of ways to track down the problem, testing their theories, then finding ways to solve the web malfunction, so Tony made an impulsive decision and rolled with it. 

“You know what, kid?” Tony said thoughtfully, watching as Peter’s head whipped up to look at him hopefully, “I think that maybe I could use a flight too. What do you say to me going with you while you test it out?” 

Peter was all for it obviously, and he practically energetically threw himself over to the door in his excitement, already talking about how he wanted to show his mentor all of the new techniques he had learned, all the recent things that had been happening in his life. Maybe, Tony mused, he would get to hear more about Peter’s school, maybe see if he was still around Vulture’s daughter. And, to his own great surprise, Tony didn’t even spare half of a glance at the project left shoved to the edge of his work table before he turned the lights off, shut the door, and shouted at the kid to wait up for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading folks! Feel free to hit me up on tumblr at okay-lupin!


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